Camp Eagle MTB Race

I went up to Camp Eagle this weekend and tried my luck at one of 'the most' difficult courses I have riden. When I was registering, the official was like, you have a UCI Cat 1 Road license and you're racing the Cat 2 MTB Race??? I was like, look, if you don't have the skills, you don't have the skills. Then he said, If you beat these guys by 5 mins or more, you know what's going to happen to this...

The weather was great, Gustav (Hurricane) was making it's way to Louisiana instead of Houston, thank you. Let me just tell you want kind of MTB I'm riding on before I begin...
I'm on a Cannondale HT, no name Dual Assualt? With a STOCK front fork, no adjustments aloud! I'm running tubes along with this rig...

The Cat 2 19-29 race starts out really well, I'm the first one up the long climbing hill...I had some trouble through the first section and I let 2 guys pass me, just because I wanted to see what I was working with here...

I passed them after about 10 mins of being behind them, they were going too slow...Go hard or go home! I was in front up till we got to the creek bed...it was so freaking bumpy in there, I was bouncing clear off my bike...HT's suck btw...

I passed the guy back, his chain came off, seemed to be a big issue with the guy...
I was in front for the rest of the race and I was in front by about a good half a mile. We did the South Loop, North loop and then the South Loop again. I flatted in the creek bed on the last loop... just before you get to the cross over wooden bridge...I rode the rest of the way on a flat...lol

The guy in second passed me on the very bumpy section of the creekbed and was like, I'm sorry I have to win this way dude...I was like...Well we won't say...

I rode on a flat the rest of the way and finihed 2nd...

I finished with enormous blisters on my hands and a busted up tire and rim...

It was a awesome weekend! MTB rocks!

Back to my Half-Ironman training.